Boeing's Starliner Disaster Was Even Worse Than We Thought, Astronaut Reveals

It's been ten months since NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams traveled to the International Space Station on board Boeing's issues-riddled Starliner spacecraft. After years of delays, Starliner finally launched from Space Launch Complex-41 at NASA's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on June 5, 2024, following three separate scrubs and the discovery of several helium leaks. Things didn't improve once the capsule reached space. Docking procedures with the ISS proved harrowing due to reaction-control thruster malfunctions. And according to a new Ars Technica interview with the two astronauts, the situation was even more terrifying than was reported at the time. "I don't know that we can come back to Earth at that point," Wilmore told Ars' Eric Berger. "I don't know if we can. And matter of fact, I'm thinking we probably can't." News that NASA had actively bent flight rules to allow Starliner to continue attempting to dock with the station — despite multiple t ... Read full article.